One small click and you’ve got voice on your site

Online commerce and traditional retailing have moved a step closer to each other following the launch of iDial™ by Sesca Innovations, a specialist in VoIP- and SIP-based technology. With the help of iDial™, customers and retailers can easily contact each other in real time – directly and online.

Retailing has changed significantly in recent years, with more and more companies turning to the Internet to increase their sales and marketing capabilities. Few customers today purchase a car, a home, or even a trip abroad without first checking what the Internet has to offer.

And while the Internet is a great source of information, it is not so good at answering spontaneous questions, such as ‘do your rooms have fitted carpets?’, ‘when can you deliver?’, or ‘is your packaging recyclable?’’

If a potential purchaser can get answers to questions like these immediately, the threshold to making a purchase could be lowered significantly. Rather than send off an email to get an answer, as they have to now, many customers simply continue surfing until they find something that catches their imagination – and the original site loses their business.

Poor interaction between buyers and sellers is perhaps one of the biggest problems with doing business online. Feedback forms and email take time that people often feel they do not have, and break that all-important first contact.

Sesca Innovations launched iDial™ in 2007. The response to the product, which enables Internet telephone calls to be made directly from Web pages to another PC, mobile phone, or landline, has been very positive.

Traditional phone call or iDial™ Click to Call?

Sesca Innovations’ iDial™ is designed to eliminate this problem and enable retailers and other service providers to move into the world of interactive online sales, combining the positive aspect of face-to-face communication and online business and increasing their potential to generate more genuine customer satisfaction.

Of course, customers have always been able to phone a company to check on something they have found online, but with iDial™ they no longer have to dig out the right number, dial, and then track down the right person to talk to.

A customer simply clicks the iDial™ button and he or she will be connected to the right person, without any annoying ‘press 1 if you want …., press 2… etc.. Calls are always free, regardless of where they originate.

iDial™ also offers sms, email, chat, and voicemail features, enabling callers to choose the mode that suits them best. Screen capture and presence are also included, making things like trouble-shooting faster and easier.

And to make things more flexible for the retailer or service provider, calls made via iDial™ can be received via a variety of channels: a PC-based iDial™ soft-phone, a landline, or a mobile phone.

A new mobile application, iDial Mobile, automatically displays a user’s availability, location, and presence. Presence updates can be shown using iDial logos in the online Click to Call application or any Web page.